Machine tools rebuilt to cut true again.
We recondition lathes, mills, borers and grinders to Schlesinger accuracy standards, grind slide-ways up to 12 m long, and sell machines we’ve rebuilt ourselves. In KwaZulu-Natal since 1991.
What do you need today?
Pick the line that fits. Each one goes straight to the person who handles it.
A machine is down
Call Swaran directly. Our breakdown team handles on-site repairs to machine tools, hydraulics, pneumatics and plant.
A machine needs rebuilding
Lost accuracy, worn ways, noisy gearbox? Book an assessment and we’ll scope the rebuild and price it.
I want to buy a machine
Reconditioned lathes, mills, borers and grinders. Tell Sheila what you need and she’ll tell you what’s available.
From a single worn spindle to a full plant shutdown
Six workshop and site services, run by one team that has been doing this work for three decades.
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Machine tool reconditioning
Worn lathes, mills, borers and grinders stripped, reground, rebuilt and tested against Schlesinger accuracy standards.
- Lathes
- Milling machines
- Boring mills
- Grinders
- CNC & conventional
- OEM restorations
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Slide-way grinding
Restore flat, straight and parallel guideways on beds up to 12 m long — the work most shops have to send out.
- Up to 12 m beds
- Up to 4 m high
- Guideway regrinding
- Bed & column ways
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CNC & conventional machining
One-off spares, reverse-engineered parts and batch work, from drawings or a worn sample.
- VMC milling
- CNC turning
- Gear cutting
- Tool, jig & die
- 2D/3D modelling
- CNC programming
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Breakdown & mechanical repairs
Our breakdown team comes to site to get production moving again, then fixes the cause properly.
- On-site breakdowns
- Mechanical fitting
- Hydraulics
- Pneumatics & electro-pneumatics
- Steam boiler maintenance
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Plant equipment overhaul
Overhauls for the rotating equipment that keeps process plants running — including batch and continuous sugar centrifuges.
- Pumps
- Industrial gearboxes
- Sugar centrifuges
- Agitators & crystallisers
- Cooling towers
- Conveyors & elevators
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Fabrication & site contracting
Structural steel, boilermaking, piping, millwright and instrument fitting — on your site, or turnkey from our workshop.
- Structural steel erection
- Boilermaking
- Pipe fitting
- Millwright & electrical
- Turnkey projects
A slide-way grinder few workshops in the country can match
Since 1995 we’ve run a 4-metre slide-way grinder. It lets us regrind the guideways of large lathes, borers and planers in-house, so the accuracy of a rebuilt machine starts at its foundation.
| Grinding length | 12 m |
|---|---|
| Height capacity | 4 m |
| In service since | 1995 |
| Accuracy standard | Schlesinger |
One lathe, start to finish
A Hulse & Co centre lathe that arrived seized and left ready for production. This is what reconditioning means here.
Collected
The lathe came to us corroded and seized, after years standing in a shed.
Stripped & reground
Every assembly came off. The bed and ways were reground and the castings repainted.
Rebuilt
Worn drives were replaced with new geared motors, then the machine was reassembled and tested.
Delivered
Loaded, transported and offloaded at the customer’s site, ready to cut again.
Reconditioned machines, ready to work
We rebuild machines in our own workshop before we sell them, so you buy a lathe, mill, borer or grinder that has been stripped, checked and tested by the people who will support it afterwards.
- Rebuilt and tested in our KwaMashu workshop
- Viewing by appointment, under power where possible
- Delivery and installation can be arranged
- Back-up service and spares from the same team
Industries we keep running
KwaZulu-Natal’s process plants and workshops, from the sugar mills of the North Coast to the tool rooms of Durban.
Sugar
Batch and continuous centrifuges, crystallisers, pumps and gearboxes overhauled between crushing seasons and repaired fast during them.
Paper & pulp
Rolls, drives, pumps and agitators kept running, plus the knife grinders and machine tools in your maintenance shop.
Automotive manufacturing
Production machine tools reconditioned to hold tolerance, and spares machined when OEM parts are slow or gone.
Plastics & synthetics
Machining for moulds and tooling, and repairs to the hydraulics and gearboxes on extrusion and moulding lines.
Tool & die making
Tool, jig and die work, gear cutting, and rebuilds of the grinders and mills toolmakers depend on.
General engineering
Slide-way grinding and full rebuilds for job shops that need their lathes and mills accurate again.
Acid plants
Pumps, agitators, piping and structural steel maintained by teams who work to strict site safety rules.
Production facilities & FMCG
On-site fitting, instrument fitting, conveyors and bucket elevators, with breakdown cover when lines stop.
Industrial tool rooms
Reconditioned machines for sale, accuracy restored on existing ones, and CNC programming support.
Built on accuracy and safety
Every reconditioning job is measured against the Schlesinger accuracy tests — the long-established geometric checks for straightness, flatness, squareness and spindle run-out that machine tool acceptance standards are built on.
On site and in the workshop, we work to a written health, safety and environmental policy, with compulsory protective equipment and controlled waste disposal.
A family-run engineering company
Machine Tool Refabrication & Sales was founded in 1991 as RCL Machine Tool Services by Mr Ramkisson, who started with on-site breakdowns. Today the business is 100% black-owned and controlled, with a fully equipped workshop in KwaMashu and branches in KwaDukuza and Richards Bay.
Have a machine that has lost its accuracy?
Send us the make, model and what it’s doing. We’ll tell you whether a rebuild makes sense, and what it will take.